Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 33
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Lesson on the Topic: “Everything Is Obtained by the Power of Prayer”
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Selected Highlights
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In the News (Newsweek): “Two-thirds of Southern Republicans say they support breaking away from the U.S. and forming their own country with nearby states, while nearly half of Democrats on the West Coast would do the same.
“A 66 percent majority of Republicans in 13 Southern states including Texas and Florida are in favor of seceding from the union, according to a poll released Wednesday by Bright Line Watch. Half of all independents in the South agreed, while only 20 percent of Southern Democrats were on board.”
Comment: Politicians, philosophers, and writers argue that the United States is already ripe for collapse.
My Response: I think this will eventually happen because the way they are going will definitely divide America into two parts. Everything is coming to this.
Republicans wouldn’t have done that. But the Democrats, who are now in power, will do everything to aggravate mutually antagonistic relations with the Republicans. I think that if this continues, these trends will intensify to the point that some people will start moving to Republican states, others to Democratic ones. That is how it will manifest itself.
Question: Isn’t this a return to the Middle Ages, when states were breaking up into small principalities and so on?
Answer: No, it means that this is mine and this is yours, but there can be good mutual neighborly relations between us.
Question: So one way or another, further connection is waiting for them in the future, but for now separation?
Answer: No, not that there will be connection in the near future. Only separation and such mutual, good development. That’s at best, of course. Republicans are more ready for independent development. These are strong, enterprising people. And the Democrats are more drawn to begging.
Question: What about your call for unity?
Answer: Unity can only be above when everyone is confident that they can add something to the other and can get something beneficial from the other. And there is no such progress here yet.
They will separate, and let them separate and live separately. Of course, they will have some kind of cooperation. They are still called the United States of America. And each state has its own set of laws, police, courts, and so on.
Question: So have they quietly prepared themselves for such a step?
Answer: They had it originally. I think that all this will pass.
But they will have to respond to this challenge because it comes from society. They will have to divide this society anyway, and then the understanding will come that education in the spirit of mutual addition, connection, and so on is necessary. But this is the next stage.
Question: But these two sides who hate each other today, Democrats and Republicans, will they eventually have this understanding that it is simply necessary to rise above hatred?
Answer: They must first realize the huge gap that exists between them in their psychology, in their approach to life and to the world, in their mutual hatred, where it comes from, and so on. All this is impossible without the recognition of evil. And for this it is necessary to reach some critical point.
Question: So do you consider this process to be correct?
Answer: It is the same in nature. A person cannot begin to change unless he recognizes the evil in his state. Neither one side nor the other is willing to recognize the evil in themselves.
Question: And how do you see this from the position of a Kabbalist?
Answer: Very true, this is dialectic.
It is necessary to determine the present state: who is right, what is to blame, to give everyone the opportunity to determine this for themselves, to realize the need for unification, and if it will manifest quickly. And if not, then exist like this until there is some kind of universal consensus in a natural way.
Question: Should some kind of unified leader appear for this later? What do you think?
Answer: He may appear. But he will not appear exactly as black or white, as a Republican or a Democrat. He will appear as someone who can unite everyone. So far this is not visible.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/20/21
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Question: How can we aim our minds and hearts to go above reason and represent the qualities of the Creator?
Answer: Aim yourself to be in connection with your ten. Make it so that such relationships are formed between you that you will make one common whole.
It seems not to be possible. But if you understand that you must rise above egoism in a rational, systematic way, then you will be able to create such conditions. Do this and you will all of a sudden feel that the Creator lives in you. He reveals Himself to you.
Question: Does above reason mean above my desires and my feelings? What should the action above reason be if we still have not developed new feelings?
Answer: We should act in such a way as if we are already in the spiritual world, in the quality of bestowal and love, and from this state we move forward.
Our imagination is our desire, our pressure, when we try to do things together. This is what creates the prerequisites for the upper light to influence us and to build us in such a way.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5
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Baal HaSulam, Shamati 13, “A Pomegranate”: It means that these thoughts of emptiness come to a person in order for one to have a need to take upon himself faith above reason. And for that we need the help of God. It follows that at that time one must ask of the Creator to give him the power to believe above reason.
One must turn to the Creator for everything. We must reach faith above reason; ask Him to explain what this is, to show it, to give it to us! And then everything will be fine.
You do not have to decide anything yourself. Ask all the time. Be a real “nagger.”
To take alien thoughts and raise them in faith above reason means that we must raise all disturbances that emerge in us and treat them as egoistic disturbances. As much as they are against us, we must rise above them.
Question: What does achieving faith above reason depend on?
Answer: Only on our perseverance and correct direction. It is necessary to create such a Kli (vessel), a state of connection between us, that will reveal the Creator.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Going with Faith above Reason” Lesson 5
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Question: How can I learn to correctly sort desires that I cannot work with yet, desires that need to be restricted, and desires that need to be properly shaped and cultivated?
Answer: You cannot do anything with your desires because you do not know how to implement them correctly yet. You do not know which of them are bad, which are good, and how to work with them. Therefore, you are not given the opportunity to do anything with them and somehow manipulate them. And rightly so, you would only harm yourself.
Therefore, we need to try, in spite of everything, to get closer, then the desires will gradually be corrected, and in their gradual correction we will see how to act. We will learn this.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4
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Rabash, “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”: This means that if two friends sit together and contemplate how to enhance the importance of the Creator, they already have the strength to receive enhancement of the greatness of the Creator in the form of awakening from below.
It is enough for us to simply sit together and think about how to raise the importance of the Creator in our own eyes, and by this we become strengthened by His greatness. We should think more about how important the Creator can be in our eyes. Accordingly, we will be able to move forward.
In the group, you can talk about everything but in such a way that at the beginning and at the end of the conversation we connect with the Creator and with the goal.
We should start the discussion with the fact that this will lead us to the goal, guide us, and bring us closer to it. And we should end with the fact that we check how much what we have just discussed has brought us closer to the goal.
Only this is taken into account, and we should pursue only this.
Only to the extent that I can feel the greatness of the goal in my friends will I be able to get closer to it. I can cultivate, develop, and draw it in myself as much as I like, but this will not help. I should affect the group, and the group should affect me.
To this extent, I will be excited by the greatness of the goal possibly to the point that it will begin to be revealed to me.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4
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Rabash, “Concerning Above Reason”: The envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own. It motivates him to acquire their good qualities, which he doesn’t have and of which he is jealous.
You probably remember how your mother told many of you in your childhood: “Play with this boy and not with that one because you will learn something good from this one and from that one, on the contrary, only bad.”
The problem is that we need envy and to use it properly. We are surrounded by friends who have very good properties for spiritual advancement, but we are not jealous of them. They might even repel us physically, outwardly, or in some other way.
We need to overcome all the rejections in our world in terms of appearance, habits, movements, and everything that can repel us from a friend. The most important thing is to start envying them regarding their goals and capabilities.
Only then will I be able to approach them, attach their aspirations to myself, and accumulate a sufficient number of such desires from my friends so that I will form a whole Kli, vessel. Therefore, envy develops our Kli and allows us to make it large and universal.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Jews of Today’s German Army”
After Nazi-Germany’s attempt to wipe out its (and the world’s) Jewish population, today 118,000 Jews reside in Germany. Eight decades have passed since World War II and there are currently about 300 Jews wearing the German military uniform “ready to die” for their homeland. Some of them even come from families of Holocaust survivors.
How is it possible for Jews to join the German army after the military atrocities committed against Jews by the Nazis? The answers vary.
Some argue that this is the way to heal the wounds of history and others think that this is actually the way to clear prejudices since today there is a new Germany. But each assertion springs from a sense of self-righteousness, from a desire to show everyone that “Jews are not what people always thought they were.” It is a desire to be accepted and understood.
During World War I, about 100,000 German Jewish soldiers fought for their country. Before they were banned from serving in the army when Hitler came to power in 1933, they fought as hard as any Christian German to serve their homeland and did their best to show that they were loyal Germans. But did that help them when the Nazis, with their Aryan supremacy agenda, came to power? Why do they think it will be different today? How can they ignore that there is still rampant antisemitism throughout the country and right-wing extremists within the German military and police as authorities have uncovered in recent years?
Just as no one foresaw that only fifteen years after World War I Jews would be blamed for all of Germany’s troubles and their participation in the war would be presented as an act of betrayal against the country they fought and died in, today no one will salute them.
To understand where the phenomenon of Jewish self-denial comes from, one must understand who a Jew is and what his or her role is. Jews have an element that was imprinted in them in the time of our ancestor Abraham, which culminated with the acceptance of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai. This spiritual element connects the Jews to the power of nature; it is an element that does not exist in any other nation., Through this spiritual element the Jews can become a channel leading to abundance, light, and spiritual power for the whole world. That is what it is to be “a light to the nations.”
During the period of the Second Temple, the Jewish people were at the height of their glory and united in brotherly love that enlightened all of mankind. But as selfishness, the evil instinct, the negative force, grew and separated them, brotherhood and love were replaced by free hatred that sent the Jews to all corners of the world.
Since the destruction of the Temple, the Jews have failed to fulfill their role in humanity, and as a result of it, they evoke a sense of hatred known as antisemitism. In order to escape the hatred against them, they try to hide their Jewish identity wherever they live or attempt to blend in within the establishment, like those Jews who join the ranks of the German army, for example. In extreme cases, consciously or unconsciously, they become Jew-haters themselves.
In all ways, Jews are trying to free themselves from the role assigned to them by trying to uproot their spiritual origin. But this is impossible. The Jewish “gene” is in their essence. It is a spiritual root that is above nature, and it forces them to be Jews.
The only action the Jews have to perform today is to unite among them. That is the act that made them a nation to begin with; it is also the only act that has ever earned them respect and goodwill from other peoples and nations— it is the simple act of promoting the value of solidarity and cohesion from the Jews to the entire world.
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Daily Audio Version-MP3
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